Incident occurred in front of shocked pilgrims visiting St Peter's during the Vatican's Jubilee Year.

A man climbed onto the main altar in St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on Friday, kicking six large candelabra to the ground and removing the altar cloth before being stopped by security guards.

Video footage posted on X showed the man knocking down the candelabra, which date to 1865 and are valued at €30,000, in front of shocked pilgrims in Rome for the Vatican's Jubilee Year.

A 40-year-old Romanian man was detained during the incident which occurred at around 10.30 on Friday morning under the newly-restored Baldachin canopy, news agency ANSA reports.

Le Vatican… bordel LE VATICAN !!!!@F_Desouche @FrDesouche pic.twitter.com/O87ZSb4QNW

— Père Lapouque (@Boujoumapoule) February 7, 2025

The man was detained and cited by Vatican police before being handed over to Italian authorities, according to the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

“This is an episode of a person with a serious mental disability, who has been detained by the Vatican Police and then placed at the disposal of the Italian authorities,” the director of the Holy See press office, Matteo Bruni, told ANSA.

A similar incident occurred in 2019 when a man threw a candelabra off the same altar in St Peter's.